The Men’s Program

THE 12 STEP PROGRAM: A BEGINNER’S GUIDE

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

4 Introduction

5 The Twelve Steps: A Way of Life

7 A Brief History of Alcoholics Anonymous and the 12-Step Model

10 A Brief Overview of Addiction

12 Step One: Admit Powerlessness

14 Step Two: Find Your Higher Power

16 Step Three: Turn Your Will Over to Your Higher Power

18 Step Four: The Moral Inventory

20 Step Five: Admit the Nature of Our Wrongs

22 Step Six: Reflect and Find a Willingness to Change

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

24 Step Seven: Ask Higher Power to Remove Your Shortcomings

26 Step Eight: Make a List of Those You Harmed

28 Step Nine: Make Amends

30 Step Ten: Maintain Recovery

32 Step Eleven: Improve Conscious Contact with Your Higher Power

34 Step Twelve: Spread the Word

36 What the Research Says About 12-Step Programs

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INTRODUCTION Alcoholics Anonymous is one of the best-known organizations in the world and is the

originator of the now-famous and widely used 12-step model of recovery. Alcoholics

Anonymous groups and other 12-step fellowships can be found in virtually every corner

of the U.S. and in scores of other countries. In many high-quality addiction treatment

programs, participating in AA is an integral and essential part of recovery.

THE TWELVE STEPS: A WAY OF LIFE

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The Twelve Steps are a group of spiritual principles that act as a clear, actionable guide for a way of life free of

addiction. Moving through the steps ideally leads to long-term sobriety, a stronger sense of purpose in life,

spiritual wholeness and overall happiness.

While Alcoholics Anonymous created and defined the 12-step process and is the best-known example of a 12-step

program, the 12 steps can apply to a wide range of addictions, compulsive behaviors and mental health problems.

As such, 94 official fellowships have been established to address various issues. These include Narcotics Anonymous,

Cocaine Anonymous, Gamblers Anonymous, Overeaters Anonymous and Sex Addicts Anonymous.

A BRIEF HISTORY OF ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS & THE 12-STEP MODEL

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8The National Prohibition Act took effect in 1920 and outlawed the manufacture, sale and consumption

of alcohol. During its 13-year span, drinking behaviors were indeed curbed, but because people were

purportedly not drinking, virtually all of the country's asylums closed their doors and self-help societies

faded away. As a result, people who needed help grappling with an alcohol addiction were unable to find it.1

In 1935, Bill W. of New York City and Dr. Bob S. of Akron, Ohio, met through their involvement with the Oxford

Group, a more-or-less non-alcoholic fellowship that emphasized spirituality in everyday life. Through his

affiliation with the group, Bill had overcome an intense alcohol addiction and maintained it by devoting his

life to working with others who were addicted to alcohol. Dr. Bob was still struggling with alcoholism when

he met Bill, who inspired him to become sober once and for all.

Together, Bill and Dr. Bob went to work helping alcoholics at City Hospital in Akron, and after one patient

quickly attained sobriety, the three men met frequently to support one another. This was the first Alcoholics

Anonymous fellowship, and by 1939, two more were in full swing in New York and Cleveland. In four years,

100 men achieved successful recovery through regular fellowship meetings. In 1939, Bill wrote Alcoholics

Anonymous, the textbook informally known as "The Big Book," which has been used for more than 80 years

to help scores of people recover from alcohol addiction.

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Alcoholics Anonymous explained the group's philosophy and methods,

at the core of which were the Twelve Steps of recovery. After The Plain

Dealer published a series of positive stories about AA in 1939, membership

in that city's AA fellowship shot up from 20 to 500 in a matter of months.

A trusteeship for the organization was established with friends of John

D. Rockefeller serving as members of the board, which was known as

The Alcoholic Foundation. An office was opened in New York to field

inquiries and distribute “The Big Book.” By 1941, AA had 6,000 members

spread across the U.S. and Canada, and by 1950, that number had reached

100,000, thanks to a great deal of positive publicity.

Today, it's estimated that there are over two million members of AA in

over 117,000 groups worldwide, and “The Big Book” has been translated

into 28 languages.

A BRIEF OVERVIEW OF ADDICTION

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11The National Institute on Drug Abuse characterizes addiction as the inability to stop using a substance

despite the negative consequences it causes in your life.2 These consequences may be related to finances,

legal status, relationships or physical or mental health.

Addiction is progressive, which means that without help, it almost always gets worse. It's also chronic and

relapsing, meaning that while it can't be cured, it can be sent into remission through abstinence. However,

using a substance again after a period of abstinence can lead to a relapse of the addiction, once again

characterized by the inability to stop using despite negative consequences.

In order to overcome an addiction, complete abstinence is essential. But without the help of a recovery

program, facing challenges and overcoming barriers is an overwhelming prospect that, more often than

not, leads quickly to relapse.

Twelve-step programs provide support and education to help people new to recovery navigate the

often-rocky road to long-term sobriety.

Participants in 12-step groups move through the steps one by one, with each step leading seamlessly to the

next. Following is a brief overview of each step as outlined in AA's guide, Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions.3

STEP ONE: ADMIT POWERLESSNESS

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"WE ADMITTED WE WERE POWERLESS OVER ALCOHOL [OR DRUGS]—THAT OUR LIVES HAD BECOME UNMANAGEABLE."

The negative consequences of substance abuse are often far-reaching and can destroy relationships, result in

job loss and cause devastating health or legal problems. Still, someone with an addiction will continue to use

a substance anyway, largely due to changes in the brain's learning, memory and reward centers that affect

thought patterns and behavior.

The first of the twelve steps involves admitting that you have lost control over your drug use, and as a result,

negative consequences have left you feeling hopeless and defeated. This, according to “The Big Book,” is

what leads many addicted individuals to AA, where they "discover the fatal nature of our situation."3 Only

then do they "become as open-minded to conviction and as willing to listen as the dying can be."

Once you truly understand and come to terms with the fact that you're powerless over your drug-seeking

and -using compulsions despite wanting or trying to quit, you're willing to do whatever it takes to defeat the

addiction and reclaim your life.

STEP TWO: FIND YOUR HIGHER POWER

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"WE CAME TO BELIEVE THAT A POWER GREATER THAN OURSELVES COULD RESTORE US TO SANITY."

Step Two is about hope and faith. Despite disappointment, guilt, depression,

a sense of failure and other destructive emotions, there is always hope for

a better future. Hope, according to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health

Services Administration, is the belief that the challenges of sobriety can be

overcome through an individual's strengths, talents, resources, coping skills

and inherent values, and it's the very foundation of recovery.4

Hope is supported by a power greater than ourselves. Whether you call this

power "God," "the Universe," "love," "family" or something else entirely, this

means having faith that something beyond yourself can imbue you with the

strength to overcome the challenges of recovery.

STEP THREE: TURN YOUR WILL OVER TO YOUR HIGHER POWER

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"WE MADE A DECISION TO TURN OUR WILL AND OUR LIVES OVER TO THE CARE OF GOD AS WE UNDERSTOOD HIM."

The first two steps are deeply personal and serve to restore hope for the future and faith that a power

beyond your own flawed self can help you overcome your addiction. In Step Three, your attention turns

to the higher power you identified in Step Two as you acknowledge that recovery requires help beyond

the flesh, blood and brain synapses that make you who you are. However you defined your higher power

in Step Two, that power is something bigger and more powerful than you, and it's more accepting of you

than you are of yourself.

Step Three leads you to mindfully release the death grip you have on the minutia of your life and listen

to a deeper voice that's far wiser and more compassionate than you are. It leads you to let go of your

preconceived notions of yourself, release your guilt, anger, frustration and self-hatred and realize that

your current state and the problems in which you're mired represent only a sliver of your greater self.

In Step Three, you turn your life over to the forces that drive your deeper, spiritual self so that you can

effectively navigate the difficult steps that follow and open your mind to new possibilities and ways of

thinking about yourself. In doing so, you open yourself to the humbling life lessons coming your way in

the following steps so that they will resonate in a deeply meaningful way.

STEP FOUR: THE MORAL INVENTORY

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"WE MADE A SEARCHING AND FEARLESS MORAL INVENTORY OF OURSELVES."

Step Four is a time of soul-searching. At the core of our inability to intimately know ourselves is denial, the

act of ignoring our negative aspects and pretending they don't exist because confronting them is terrifying

on so many levels. Denial enables us to justify or rationalize our harmful thoughts and behaviors to make

ourselves feel better about them.

The moral inventory is a comprehensive, brutally honest written list of all of the wrongs you perpetrated

while mired in your addiction. It's undertaken fearlessly because in Step Three, you turned your life over to

your higher power, which is eternally compassionate and forgiving. During Step Three, you withhold

self-judgment and, for now, accept your failings as a part of your past and regard them with impartiality.

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration stresses that knowing exactly where

you've come from is essential for finding your way to where you want to go.5 In extracting the unfortunate

deeds you've done, these can now be replaced by an indelible lightness of being. You exist in the present,

and you now have the power to make choices that will preclude you from making the same mistakes again.

STEP FIVE: ADMIT THE NATURE OF OUR WRONGS

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"WE ADMITTED TO GOD, TO OURSELVES, AND TO ANOTHER HUMAN BEING THE EXACT NATURE OF OUR WRONGDOINGS."

Once the fearless moral inventory has been made, it's time to step out from behind the mask of guilt, self-deception

and pride that isolates you from others and prevents you from being honest with yourself. It's time to knock down

the walls you've constructed to hide your shame and self-loathing, walls that make it difficult to analyze the issues

underlying the addiction and move forward with certainty and clarity.

With Step Five comes a profound inner shift wherein who you are is no longer defined by your sordid deeds, but by

self-forgiveness and sharing the weight of those deeds with a wise, supportive soul. Not only will you come out on

the other side forgiven and whole, but you'll also find that you're no longer apart from humanity, no longer hiding

behind a veil of deceit. You'll move into the next phase of recovery with open-mindedness and honesty.

STEP SIX: REFLECT AND FIND A WILLINGNESS TO CHANGE

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"WE WERE ENTIRELY READY TO HAVE GOD REMOVE ALL THESE DEFECTS OF CHARACTER."

Step Six is about reflection, preparation, and a willingness to change. Being willing and ready to surrender

your "defects of character" to a higher power means that you're ready to let that higher power—God, Love,

Buddha, The Universe, Allah, Nature—touch your life and move you in a spiritual direction. It's becoming

willing and ready to let go of certain things in your life that prevent you from progressing in your recovery

and your spiritual growth.

Step Six is the process of reaching this state of readiness, the process of finding that you're truly prepared

to make the daily effort required to evaluate and adjust your thoughts and behaviors to foster healthy

expressions of your humanity.

Being willing to surrender your deficits of character to your higher power and continue to move into the

light—even despite setbacks, which are a natural part of recovery—is an indication of your readiness to

mindfully and honestly address imbalances in your life to promote spiritual growth and long-term recovery.

STEP SEVEN: ASK HIGHER POWER TO REMOVE YOUR SHORTCOMINGS

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"WE HUMBLY ASKED HIM [OR HER, OR IT] TO REMOVE OUR SHORTCOMINGS."

Step Seven is about humility rather than the expectation that your higher

power will swoop in and erase your shortcomings with a magic wand and

instantaneously transform you into a brand-new being. You're human,

after all, and shortcomings are a part of the fundamental human condition.

Humility is the ability to see yourself as you actually are—comprised of

both strengths and weaknesses—so that you can make a sincere attempt

to become what you want to be. Humility is essential for moving away from

yourself and your limitations and toward others and your higher power.

By humbly appealing to your higher power to remove your shortcomings,

you're embracing hope and committing to doing your part to rid your life of

stumbling blocks that will inhibit your spiritual growth.

STEP EIGHT: MAKE A LIST OF THOSE YOU HARMED

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"WE MADE A LIST OF ALL PERSONS WE HAD HARMED, AND BECAME WILLING TO MAKE AMENDS TO THEM ALL."

In Step Eight, you work toward repairing the damage you've done to others,

attaining forgiveness and restoring relationships whenever possible. Similar

to the moral inventory, Step Eight requires first making a list of the people

you hurt and recording thoughts about how you might make amends. Then,

you work toward a willingness to make those amends.

Step Eight demands honesty about your relationships with others. It's the

beginning of the process of forgiving people who have hurt you and being

forgiven by those you've hurt, and it helps build an awareness of your new

and changing attitudes about yourself and your relationships.

STEP NINE: MAKE AMENDS

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"MAKE DIRECT AMENDS TO SUCH PEOPLE WHENEVER POSSIBLE, EXCEPT WHEN TO DO SO WOULD INJURE THEM OR OTHERS."

Step Nine serves to help clear your conscience and banish the lingering

vestiges of guilt, regret and shame—which may be long buried and all but

forgotten—that shapes and skews your self-perception and leads you

to blame others, justify unjustifiable actions and make excuses for your

behaviors, all of which are unhealthy and impact your clarity and serenity.

Shame and guilt can fuel denial and lead to other negative consequences.6

By making amends to the best of your ability, you're able to clear your

conscience, improve your self-esteem, relieve stress and let go of blame.

The first step is forgiving yourself for your wrongdoings and forgiving

others for any part they may have played in your wrongful actions.

The second step is coming clean, trying to make up for your actions,

and—in most cases—enjoying the forgiveness bestowed upon you.

This step helps you examine your actions under a microscope and

understand how what you do affects others.

STEP TEN: MAINTAIN RECOVERY

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"WE CONTINUED TO TAKE PERSONAL INVENTORY AND WHEN WE WERE WRONG PROMPTLY ADMITTED IT."

Step Ten is about maintaining recovery by staying ever vigilant of your

actions, behaviors, attitudes and emotions to ensure you don't revert

to old, harmful ways of thinking and behaving. Spot-checks throughout

your day enables you to identify selfish, dishonest, or fear-driven

behaviors that can cause others harm. This, in turn, gives you the

opportunity to make amends immediately so that you can live free

of guilt and shame.

Daily examination of your thoughts and actions helps you identify

emotional states that tend to lead you to make mistakes that affect

others and compromise your recovery. It also helps you forgive others

for their undesirable attitudes and behaviors that at one time might

have led you to make regrettable choices.

Step Ten is a lifelong endeavor that helps you keep your slate clean.

It enhances your sense of compassion for yourself and for others, and

it keeps you honest.

STEP ELEVEN: IMPROVE CONSCIOUS CONTACT WITH YOUR HIGHER POWER

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"WE SOUGHT THROUGH PRAYER AND MEDITATION TO IMPROVE OUR CONSCIOUS CONTACT WITH GOD AS WE UNDERSTOOD HIM, PRAYING ONLY FOR KNOWLEDGE OF HIS WILL FOR US AND THE POWER TO CARRY THAT OUT."

Step Eleven brings prayer and meditation into your daily life as an integral part of your ongoing recovery. The purpose

of prayer in recovery, whether it's a plea to God or a heartfelt and earnest wish sent to the universe from your heart

of hearts, is to be ever mindful of where you are and where you're going and to draw strength from your higher power.

Meditation helps you make an explicit connection to a higher part of yourself to bring about meaningful change from

the inside out.

STEP TWELVE: SPREAD THE WORD

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"HAVING HAD A SPIRITUAL AWAKENING AS THE RESULT OF THESE STEPS, WE TRIED TO CARRY THIS MESSAGE TO ALCOHOLICS, AND TO PRACTICE THESE PRINCIPLES IN ALL OUR AFFAIRS."

Step Twelve, the final step, is about spreading a message of hope to others who are just starting their

recovery journey. By now, you've achieved emotional stability and live a mindful life mostly free of actions

that lead to guilt, shame, confusion and other negative emotions. Now, you're qualified to be a sponsor to

someone in need of personal guidance. You show others by example that you overcame the many barriers

to recovery, and if you can do it, anyone can.

Because you've been there and made the excuses and played the victim and lied to yourself and others,

you're in a unique position to see through these behaviors in others struggling with addiction. You can show

that hope is everything, that recovery is joyful and that even when life feels meaningless, it's anything but.

You will always be a work in progress. You will always have to attend to steps nine and ten, and you'll still

face challenges and experience setbacks. But by now, you're strong enough and know enough to be a

beacon to light the way for others so that they, too, can transform their lives.

WHAT THE RESEARCH SAYS ABOUT 12-STEP PROGRAMS

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37For years, only a handful of studies set out to document the effectiveness of AA and other 12-step programs,

largely due to the fact that to preserve anonymity, few statistics are kept by AA.

According to the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation, historian and author Charles Bishop, Jr. stresses that

categorizing AA as a form of addiction therapy does it a disservice because it's a spiritual fellowship rather

than a treatment strategy.7 "The underlying difficulties of applying the scientific method to spirituality should

give every scholar pause," he points out, noting that research on the effectiveness of the organization should

be approached gingerly.

Because it's a spiritually based program, science and medicine for many years scoffed at AA—particularly

the bits about personal powerlessness and higher powers. But over the years, science has changed its tune

considerably, starting with a major federal study published in 1998 that found 12-step facilitation therapy

to work as well as cognitive-behavioral therapy and motivational enhancement therapy for promoting total

abstinence for the long-term.7

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A peer-reviewed study cited by an article published in the journal Alcoholism

Treatment Quarterly found strong evidence for the effectiveness of Alcoholics

Anonymous in the abstinence rates in those who attend AA, which is two

times higher than the abstinence rates of those who don't.8

Another study published in the Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment found

that people who attended 12-step meetings prior to entering treatment

stayed in treatment longer and were more likely to complete the program.9

The study also found that people who participate in both treatment and a

12-step program had higher abstinence rates than those who participated

in just one or the other.

Although some studies have found the evidence for AA inconclusive, the

bottom line is that for many, it's an extremely important pathway to long-

term successful recovery that enhances well-being, spirituality and purpose

as well as leads to an overall higher quality of life.

SOURCES1 ) Blocker Jr., J. S. Did Prohibition Really Work? Alcohol Prohibition as a Public Health Innovation. (2006,

February). American Journal of Public Health, 96(2); 233-243. Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1470475/

2 ) The Science of Drug Abuse and Addiction: The Basics. (2014, September). Retrieved from https://www.drugabuse.gov/publications/media-guide/science-drug-abuse-addiction-basics

3 ) Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions. (2012, July). Retrieved from http://www.aa.org/pages/en_US/twelve-steps-and-twelve-traditions

4 ) Recovery and Recovery Support. (2015, October). Retrieved from http://www.samhsa.gov/recovery

5 ) Chapter 4: From Precontemplation to Contemplation: Building Readiness. (1999). Treatment Improvement Protocol (TIP) Series, No. 35. Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK64968/

6 ) Substance Abuse Treatment for Adults in the Criminal Justice System: Major Treatment Issues and Approaches. (2005). Treatment Improvement Protocol (TIP) Series, No. 44. Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK64124/

7 ) Toft, D. (2000). Recent Research Offers Compelling Support for the Effectiveness of Twelve Step-Based Treatment. Retrieved from https://www.hazelden.org/web/public/vcsum0research.page

8 ) Krentzman, A. R., et. al. (2010, December 29). How Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) and Narcotics Anonymous (NA) Work: Cross-Disciplinary Perspectives. Alcoholism Treatment Quarterly, 29(1); 75-84. Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3140338/

9 ) Fiorentine, R. and Hillhouse, M. P. (2000, January). Drug Treatment and 12-Step Program Participation: The Additive Effects of Integrated Recovery Activities. Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment, 18(1); 65-74. Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10636609

Destination Hope is an addiction and mental health treatment center in Ft. Lauderdale, FL

that provides specialized, gender-specific programs for substance abuse and dual diagnosis.

We’ve helped hundreds of clients break free from drug and alcohol addiction, and our

programs are carefully designed to fit your loved one’s needs and maximize their recovery.

Whatever your situation is, we’re there for you.

1 (888) 998-1927www.drugrehabfl.net

The Men’s Program